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Reverend Mother sneered. “No regrets. We shall see when you’re a fugitive with a price on your head and every man’s hand turned against you to seek your life and the life of your son.”
    Jessica paled. “Is there no alternative?”
    â€œAlternative? A Bene Gesserit should ask that?”
    â€œI ask only what you see in the future with your superior abilities.”
    â€œI see in the future what I’ve seen in the past. You well know the pattern of our affairs, Jessica. The race knows its own mortality and fears stagnation of its heredity. It’s in the bloodstream—the urge to mingle genetic strains without plan. The Imperium, the CHOAM Company, all the Great Houses, they are but bits of flotsam in the path of the flood.”
    â€œCHOAM,” Jessica muttered. “I suppose it’s already decided how they’ll redivide the spoils of Arrakis.”
    â€œWhat is CHOAM but the weather vane of our times,” the old woman said. “The Emperor and his friends now command fifty-nine point six-five per cent of the CHOAM directorship’s votes. Certainly they smell profits, and likely as others smell those same profits his voting strength will increase. This is the pattern of history, girl.”
    â€œThat’s certainly what I need right now,” Jessica said. “A review of history.”
    â€œDon’t be facetious, girl! You know as well as I do what forces surround us. We’ve a three-point civilization: the Imperial Household balanced against the Federated Great Houses of the Landsraad, and between them, the Guild with its damnable monopoly on interstellar transport. In politics, the tripod is the most unstable of all structures. It’d be bad enough without the complication of a feudal trade culture which turns its back on most science.”
    Jessica spoke bitterly: “Chips in the path of the flood—and this chip here, this is the Duke Leto, and this one’s his son, and this one’s—”
    â€œOh, shut up, girl. You entered this with full knowledge of the delicate edge you walked.”
    â€œ ‘I am Bene Gesserit: I exist only to serve,’ ” Jessica quoted.
    â€œTruth,” the old woman said. “And all we can hope for now is to prevent this from erupting into general conflagration, to salvage what we can of the key bloodlines.”
    Jessica closed her eyes, feeling tears press out beneath the lids. She fought down the inner trembling, the outer trembling, the uneven breathing, the ragged pulse, the sweating of the palms. Presently, she said, “I’ll pay for my own mistake.”
    â€œAnd your son will pay with you.”
    â€œI’ll shield him as well as I’m able.”
    â€œShield!” the old woman snapped. “You well know the weakness there! Shield your son too much, Jessica, and he’ll not grow strong enough to fulfill any destiny.”
    Jessica turned away, looked out the window at the gathering darkness. “Is it really that terrible, this planet of Arrakis?”
    â€œBad enough, but not all bad. The Missionaria Protectiva has been in there and softened it up somewhat.” The Reverend Mother heaved herself to her feet, straightened a fold in her gown. “Call the boy in here. I must be leaving soon.”
    â€œMust you?”
    The old woman’s voice softened. “Jessica, girl, I wish I could stand in your place and take your sufferings. But each of us must make her own path.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œYou’re as dear to me as any of my own daughters, but I cannot let that interfere with duty.”
    â€œI understand . . . the necessity.”
    â€œWhat you did, Jessica, and why you did it—we both know. But kindness forces me to tell you there’s little chance your lad will be the Bene Gesserit Totality. You mustn’t let yourself hope too much.”
    Jessica shook tears from the corners of her eyes. It was an angry